Main Content

Video: Robojelly

Some really cool robots are underwater! Shashank Priya, associate professor in mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, explains the new robotic jellyfish.

Researchers at Virginia Tech and the University of Texas at Dallas built Robojelly from materials known as shape-memory alloys, which return to their original shape when bent. Eight moving segments wrapped in carbon nanotubes and coated with a platinum powder replicate the jellyfish's natural opening-and-closing method of propulsion.